Excerpts from
THE ART OF MAKING DANCES
By Doris Humphrey
Copyright @ 1959
The students know very well that hundreds of dances have been made on the basis of recombining well-known steps, but this, they are dimly aware, is arranging and not creating. One of the famous definitions of choreography is "the arranging of steps in all directions." But we are going to set about the problem in a different way and from a different direction, which will lead to composing and not arranging.
All the clues for this theory come from life itself. Every movement made by a human being, and far back of that, in the animal kingdom, too, has a design in space; a relationship to other objects in both time and space; an energy flow, which we will call dynamics; and a rhythm. Movements are made for a complete array of reasons involuntary or voluntary, physical, psychical, emotional or instinctive-which we will lump all together and call motivation. Without a motivation, no movement would be made at all. So, with a simple analysis of movement in general, we are provided with the basis for dance, which is movement brought to the point of fine art. The four elements of dance movement are, therefore, design, dynamics, rhythm and motivation.
THE ART OF MAKING DANCES
By Doris Humphrey
Copyright @ 1959
The students know very well that hundreds of dances have been made on the basis of recombining well-known steps, but this, they are dimly aware, is arranging and not creating. One of the famous definitions of choreography is "the arranging of steps in all directions." But we are going to set about the problem in a different way and from a different direction, which will lead to composing and not arranging.
All the clues for this theory come from life itself. Every movement made by a human being, and far back of that, in the animal kingdom, too, has a design in space; a relationship to other objects in both time and space; an energy flow, which we will call dynamics; and a rhythm. Movements are made for a complete array of reasons involuntary or voluntary, physical, psychical, emotional or instinctive-which we will lump all together and call motivation. Without a motivation, no movement would be made at all. So, with a simple analysis of movement in general, we are provided with the basis for dance, which is movement brought to the point of fine art. The four elements of dance movement are, therefore, design, dynamics, rhythm and motivation.
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